


A Dame that Knows the Ropes

by coffeebuddha



Series: Noir AU [3]
Category: Castle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Noir, F/M, First Love, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-03
Updated: 2012-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-03 00:08:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/374877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeebuddha/pseuds/coffeebuddha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kevine realizes early on that she isn't beautiful like her little sister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Dame that Knows the Ropes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mb_jazz_freak87](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=mb_jazz_freak87).



Kevine realizes early on that she isn't beautiful like her little sister. There's nothing sour or unpleasant about the realization; it doesn't even hit her suddenly. It's just something that _is_. Jenny is the kind of child who provokes exclamations like, 'Oh, where did she get those eyes!' in complete sincerity. Kevine is the kind who provokes exclamations like, 'I don't care if I can't prove it, that little brat owes me for a new window!'

Jenny is the warmth and brightness of the sun with a clear summer sky's blue in her eyes. She's sweet as a soda pop with twice the bubble.

Kevine has a thin ring of grime at the quick under her fingernails and a bad habit of punching uppity fellows in the nose. She's tough as grit with all the appeal of a volatile thunderstorm.

It's okay though, Kevine thinks when she's fourteen and Jenny is thirteen, and all the boys who play ball with her scuff their toes in the dirt when they look at her baby sister. Jenny has admirers, boys who blush at her smile and whisper about the delicate curve of her waist. They buy her candy at the corner store and vie for her attention like a pack of dogs begging for scraps.

Kevine, well, Kevine has pals. She doesn't inspire blushes, but she doesn't need those half as much as she needs someone to have her back in a scrap or ready to toss her the ball when she sees an opening to get the ball back to home plate when there are three on base.

She has nights spent laughing over illicit bottles of booze, afternoons raising eyebrows over the racy stories in brown paper covered books, and lazy Saturdays perched in the highest tree near the baseball stadium. 

More than that, she has Javier. There are unhappy murmurs, sometimes even threats, about his pale mother and his dark skinned father, but Kevine doesn't listen to them. Why would she when she has Javier's low voice whispering hilarious secrets about Mrs. Irvine's secret visits with the ice man and the lengths Mr. Thompson will go to keep his shirts white when money's a little too tight for bleach. Javier's her best pal, her confidant, her partner in crime, and she loves him with a ferocity that scares her a little bit in its vastness.

And if sometimes it seems that she'll never notice the way that Javier, who never grants Jenny more than a friendly smile, occasionally buys Kevine chocolate when she's had a bad day, goes just a bit rosier in the cheek when she grabs him by the wrist, and watches her with the same wide, wanting eyes as the dogs who hang around outside the butcher's shop? 

Well, Javier is willing to wait, because Javier has always loved a good thunderstorm, even when he can only smell the far off ozone of it on the breeze.

**Author's Note:**

> Title's taken from a quote by Mae West. "A dame that knows the ropes isn't likely to get tied up."


End file.
